Gentle Day
by JasperK
Summary: A day in the life of. . . or how to weave together a day (Vash x Meryl)


_A/N: Is my birthday. I wrote this for me, and decided to share it. Perhaps it would make others happy too._

* * *

Meryl pulled the covers over her head. It was second nature to her when Vash slipped out from under the sheets before the crack of dawn. He tried to make his alarm quiet, but it always woke her. She sleepily opened one eye and watched as he seated himself on the floor with his head bowed. Aw. She closed her eyes and tried to drift off again. He'd started doing that after she'd come up with the idea of wrapping her arms around his waist when he started his meditation. It had distracted him very well several times. There were other forms of exercise. She smiled to herself, oh, she was so sleepy. However, as comfortable and dozy as she was, she found her mind slowly but surely waking up into business mode. She screwed up her face and rubbed it into the sheets where he had lain seconds before. Ah, that was better. Instead of bothering on the day's business, her brain chased the scents and memories they triggered.

She woke when the blanket was lifted and a light kiss was planted on her cheekbone.

"Your alarm went off five minutes ago."

"What!" She sat up, her eyes wide as Vash jerked back to avoid her head. He held out the coffee cup. "Morning."

She sat among the sheets, sipping coffee and trying to wake up as Vash dug through his duffle.

He had showered and was clad only in a loosely tied towel, which was revealing enough buttocks to thoroughly distract Meryl. She sighed, if she'd been more with it she could have caught him before he left the bed.

"What should I wear today?" He frowned into the depths of his duffle.

Meryl laughed, making her coffee slosh from the side to the side.

"Vash, the only choice you have to make in the morning is which briefs to wear."

A slow grin came across his face.

"Oh no." She laughed.

He hastily fished out the several pairs he had. He held up the pair she'd most recently found. It had bullet holes printed on it. She'd thought it the most excellent idea until he'd tried it on and they had discovered a rather unfortunately placed print over the arsehole.

"I fart bullets?" He flipped them onto the bed. "Or the very manly, love hearts?" He dropped the towel and waved the white pants with bright red hearts all over them as a modesty cover. He fished out the next pair, that were covered in bullet shell prints. "My straight shooter." He made a rather indecent gesture accompanied by a suggestive eyebrow wriggle and Meryl cracked up, hastily putting her coffee on the side table. He dropped them on the bed and waved the next pair like a flag. "The STUD" he announced the words printed across the front of the briefs. He held them at his stomach level, leaving nothing to her imagination.

She opened her mouth to tell him that the advertising was supposed to present the package as a surprise, but her laughter would not let any words out. He tossed them on the bed and fished out the next one.

"Meeeeeyow!" He caterwauled lasciviously as he mock modelled a pair with black cats all over it. He was distracted by the next pair in his bag and dropped them.

"Hey! Here are my lucky briefs!" He declared and pulled them on with great enthusiasm, then proceeded to strut around the room. Meryl smiled as he came over to give her a closer glimpse.

"Good choice." She patted his backside as he preened. "Lucky doughnuts."

Meryl dressed and sipped coffee at the same time. This was a tricky procedure with Vash in the same room. He was dressing himself, but like a cat, seemed to instinctively know the worst place to interrupt her. She placed the coffee cup on the cupboard shelf and pulled her skirt and leggings on. As rushed as she was, she was pleased that he left her alone. In fact he hadn't appeared to have noticed, he was carefully doing up his coat buttons. She pulled her shirt over her head and squealed as arms encircled her and tickled her bare stomach.

"aaa ah eee oo oh ooo urk." She protested.

He laughed as she wriggled into her shirt and turned in his arms for a hug.

"What was that you were saying there?"

"Vash, I need to go to work!"

"Don't I keep you busy enough?" He murmured and trailed kisses down her cheek.

Now he was interested. Hmm, if she skipped breakfast then...

A knock sounded at the door and they both groaned. Why not a few hours ago when they had time?

"Those lucky doughnuts will have to keep till this evening." She ducked her head away from him.

She heard him mutter something about day olds and hastily tucked in her blouse as the knocks sounded at the door.

"Hi Milly!" She called as the tall girl stepped in.

"Miss Meryl, we'd better hurry! Look at that!"

Meryl stepped out of the door and stared in dismay at the rising cloud of smoke several streets away in the industrial district.

"Gotta go!" She called to Vash as she hauled on her shoes. He held out her cape and, to her surprise, a doughnut to tide her over until she had breakfast. "Thanks!"

.

She ended up having brunch with Milly outside the munitions factory as they interviewed various people. Many were inventive eyewitnesses who had been woken by the blast, but a few had seen what had happened, and it was her job to find those few in a milling crowd of the morbidly curious. It was some sort of gang hostage situation, and their demands were a getaway vehicle. Several yarz of no man's land stood between the onlookers and the trigger happy gang inside the munitions factory.

Milly was just finishing her bagel when the young deputy sheriff approached them.

"Did you see that?"

There was something about his tone which made Meryl's ears prick up. She shoved the last of her bagel back in the packet and picked up her notebook as Milly went for her camera.

There were shouts and pointing as a man in red darted across the no man's land.

"If he doesn't die here I'm so going to kill him!" Meryl growled under her breath to Milly as Vash darted inside the building.

"He'll be fine Miss Meryl." Milly said confidently.

"Not once I've done with him!" She grouched.

After five minutes intense commotion inside the building there was silence. They waited. It was two in the afternoon when the Feds arrived and raided the place, by which time Meryl had chewed her nails to the quick. She hurried forward to get the details of the prisoners and counted them again and again, but no red coated spikey haired gunman was among them. Milly distracted the guard while Meryl sneaked inside. She searched the building, and eventually found her way out onto the factory floor. She heard voices.

"... and take you in for sixty billion double dollars."

Vash, what had he got himself into now?

"Yes, you could." Vash said calmly. "But you could also walk out of here with your life and freedom, and the girl you came to rescue."

Meryl found Vash standing with both hands raised as three men, one holding a girl who was sobbing into his chest, held him at gunpoint.

"He helped us Eli!" The man holding the girl protested. "You know the rumours, he's stayed clear of that bounty for years. We've got too much to lose."

Eli's arm did not waver, and he kept his gun pointed straight at Vash's head.

"Sixty billion." Eli breathed.

The girl pushed away from her lover and glared at Eli.

"If you so much as harm a hair on his head, or take a c-cent of his bounty money, I'll tell dad how my own brother got me into this situation!"

Eli lowered his gun.

"Let's beat it." He growled.

They walked out. Vash breathed out a sigh, turned and shot a smile at Meryl, then pulled a cheesy thumbs up. Meryl glowered at him and he winced. When she looked again, he was gone.

"What are you doing in here reporter?"

Meryl spun around to find the Fed's exploring the factory.

"Investigating!" She said brightly, and allowed them to escort her out.

.

She submitted the edited article for the afternoon run of the paper and she and Milly spent the afternoon writing the regular reports for the next day. Out of the office window she could see Vash playing with the kids as they came home from school. He was play wrestling and had five of them hanging off his arms, trying to topple him.

"Hah! That crazy man."

Meryl glanced up to see Laura, one of her co-workers peering through the window. She smiled.

"I asked him what his name was once and he told me Vash the Stampede. My boyfriend Carl says he told him the same thing. Do you think he might be the legendary gunman?"

Vash mistook his step and landed in the tomas water trough. The kids around him rolled on the ground with laughter.

"No." She and Laura chorused together and went back to their work.

.

Armed with a pile of doughnuts, raw ingredients for soup and a bottle of fine whiskey, Meryl headed home with Milly. They had supper ready by the time Vash wandered in, dusty and sweaty.

"How was work Mister Vash?" Milly asked.

"The usual." He smiled and swiped the doughnuts before Meryl could hide them.

"You'll spoil your appetite!" She called after him as he darted into the bedroom and shut the door.

They ate supper as Vash explained the complex reasoning behind the gang hold up of the munitions factory. Milly added what the sheriff's office had said once they had interviewed the prisoners.

"They know I was there?" Vash said with disappointment.

"Sure do." Milly smiled at him. "Described you down to the beauty spot under your left eye."

"We'll have to leave." Meryl reflected quietly.

"Maybe they won't put it all together." Vash said hopefully.

A knock sounded at the door. Milly opened it, and a young man with a deputy sheriff's badge in his hand slipped in and pushed the door shut.

He put his badge down on the ground.

"For the next minute I am not a law man." He panted. He smiled up at Milly. "It could have worked between us, dear, if only..." He then turned to them. "They know Vash the Stampede is here and who his accomplices are. You have about five minutes to get out." He paused. "Oh, and Laura said to give you this, Meryl."

He held out an envelope.

"It's your wages. They all knew you'd have to leave without warning."

They stared at him and he handed them to Milly.

"What are you waiting for!" He exclaimed. "Do you want to be arrested by the Feds? Get out!"

He picked up his badge and darted out into the night.

.

"Sorry." Vash murmured as they walked along the cold desert road in the moonlight.

"This sure beats dodging bullets Mister Vash." Milly said happily. "Look there, don't you think it will be a good place to hide?" She pointed out a tall rock in the distance.

"Yes." Meryl said. "Which is why we're going to camp out on the back of that dune there." She pointed in the opposite direction.

The search passed them several times in the night, and no one thought to look on the far side of the dune they drove past. Meryl waited till Milly was asleep before she slipped out of her blankets. Wow it was freezing. Vash opened one eye as she darted across and wrapped his arms and blankets around her, then rubbed her arms until she warmed up.

She nestled her head against his chest and idly traced the scars she could reach. He curled his prosthetic arm around her and tucked her closer. For a false appendage, it was oddly warm, the inner gears and motors that operated it radiated just enough heat for it to be a few degrees cooler than body temperature.

"So much for lucky doughnuts." He murmured regretfully. "See why I don't like day olds?"

She laughed quietly.

"We got out without a fight, and got paid, and you saved several lives today. It depends what you want to be lucky."

"I suppose so." He murmured and kissed her hair. "And then, there is always tomorrow."


End file.
